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Former editor-in-chief The National sports weeklySports Illustrated columnistNarrator of the documentary "Visions of New York City"He grew up near Baltimore, Maryland, and attended the Gilman School in Baltimore. He is a graduate of Princeton University and now resides in Westport, Connecticut, with his wife, Carol.He is the chairman emeritus of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He became an advocate for children with cystic fibrosis after his daughter Alexandra was diagnosed with the illness when she was a few months old. She died on January 19, 1980, at age eight.In 1983, Deford published a memoir that chronicled his daughter's short life. The book was adapted into a TV film of the same name, Alex: The Life of a Child (1986) (TV), which starred Craig T. Nelson as Deford and Bonnie Bedelia as his wife, Carol. Deford updated his memoir in 1998 to include an epilogue on how his family and Alex's childhood friends progressed following her death.He and his wife Carol have had three children: Christian (b. 1969), Alexandra (b. 1972 - d. 1980), and Scarlet (b. 1980). Scarlet is the daughter they adopted a few months following the death of their daughter Alex, who died of cystic fibrosis at age eight.Is one of the interviewees talking about NBA star Ming Yao in the documentary film The Year of the Yao (2004).Father-in-law of Adam Douglas Winner (born 1980).Adoptive father of Scarlet Faith Deford Winner.